Mats Scheidegger, born in Baden, Switzerland, he studied guitar in his home country and by David Starobin in New York. He is one of the leading guitarists in the field of contemporary music and his focus is on the development of new techniques and repertory for both classical and electric guitar.

In the field of contemporary music he performs both the classics of the avant-garde (such as Ferneyhough, Berio, Lachenmann, Scelsi, Donatoni and Carter) and works from the latter decades of the 20^th and the 21^st century as a regular guest at festivals like Lincoln Center Festival New York, Festival d’Automne Paris, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Wien Modern, Festspiele Berlin, Biennale München, English National Opera, Gaudeamus Music Week.

As an orchestral soloist, Mats Scheidegger performed the Swiss premiere of Luciano Berio’s guitar concerto with the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Worldpremier of the Sologuitar in Ferneyhough’s highly acclaimed Opera Shadowtime at the Biennale of Munich or the Sololute in the 5 Bagatelli Transcencentali from Nadir Vassena with the Freiburger Barockorchestra at the Lucerne Festival.

Mats Scheidegger has sought to deepen and develop the instrumental possibilities of the guitar. He has close working relationships with many composers including Heinz Holliger, Franck Bedrossian, Brian Ferneyhough, Beat Furrer, Helmut Lachenmann. Composers such as Sam Hayden, Brian Ferneyhough, Nadir Vassena, Hans Ulrich Lehmann, Jose Luis Campana, Thomas Kessler, Isabel Soveral, Gary Berger, Walter Feldmann and Tommy Zwedberg have composed works for Mats Scheidegger who has performed them in numerous concerts and has made many radio and studio recordings.

Currently he is also very active with electronic music and he has developed a new practicable gear for the contemporary electric guitar. Beside his engagement for the contemporary music he has also a focus on the Vienna Repertoire of the 19th Century, like Schuberts Songcycle Die Schöne Müllerin where he did a transcription for Romantic Guitar, all Songs set in Original Key, without using any specials tunings or technical aids. He has been artistic director of the Tage für Neue Musik Zürich (Zurich Contemporary Music Days) from 1998 - 2011. With the zurich contemporary music ensemble soyuz21 he gives a strong artistic vision of the possibilities with multimedia art and new concepts of the concert. He is teaching guitar and chamber music at the Musikhochschule Luzern and is giving Masterclasses in Europe and America. His living is based in Zürich.

Mats Scheidgger @ Hochschule Luzern